ALBUM REVIEW: Darwin Deez – Double Down

New York’s lanky son of indie pop, Darwin Deez has already formed two whole albums on the basis of the same twee, guitar-based sound. Now on album three, Deez’ output has become saturated with the same child-like love stories that made him popular in the first place. Double Down hops and skips around the safety of a hipster-friendly bubble decorated by heaps of reverb and delay. The wince-inducing lyrics of a track like Rated R – “You are rated R/I’m 15, I’m 15” – is enough to make you want to listen to some black metal. Melange Mining manages to recapture some of Deez’ rapidly diminishing presence as an artist, but it’s not hard to imagine and even harder to care what he’ll do next.